Scientists for the first time captured on camera the process of decomposition of a corpse over a year and a half. What they saw can shock impressionable people: all this time the dead man made movements.
A common human reaction to a corpse is intense disgust. As the cognitive anthropologist Pascal Boyer testifies in his book Explaining Religion, all known cultures have ideas about the polluting, desecrating action of dead bodies. We strive to get rid of this terrible object as soon as possible by burying it on earth, fire or sea.
Perhaps this explains the fact that the process of decomposition of the body for 17 months was first documented in detail only in the 21st century.
The research took place at the Australian facility for taphonomic experimental research. The first letters of its name add up to the meaningful abbreviation AFTER (AFTER). It is the only research institution in the Southern Hemisphere that studies the decomposition of human bodies in vivo.
Scientists have set up an automatic camera so that every half hour during daylight hours, it captures this sad sight. As the publication Science Alert specifies, filming continued for 17 months.
The researchers who studied the received records did not expect the corpse to be so mobile. More precisely, they were not going to track his activity. Their goal was to test the model published by predecessors describing the decomposition process at different stages.
This model has passed the test with flying colors. A research team led by Alyson Wilson of Central Queensland University published a research paper on this in Forensic Science International: Synergy.
However, along the way, strange movements of the corpse were discovered. For example, the arms, initially lying along the body, ended up being spread out.
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As it turned out, the process of posthumous decomposition can still surprise scientists.
Scientists expected to reveal posthumous movements some time after death, but the activity of the corpse during the entire period of filming was a complete surprise to them.
According to the researchers, this discovery could revolutionize forensic science. Indeed, until now, the posture in which the body was found was considered the posture of death, unless there was evidence of the movement of the corpse by people or animals.
The scientific work describing these "posthumous dances" is not yet ready. But the researchers hope their findings will help better solve crimes and investigate accidents. (By the way, the fruits of scientists' curiosity about the most unexpected things can be so useful.)
Author: Anatoly Glyantsev
